Bum staves



JJJJJJJJJJJ P. METHOD OF PREP AAAAAAAAAAAAAA s.

61 mm i gnaw/wot Lgme j har uuuuuuuuuuuuu c.

NTED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

JAMES PLEUKI-IARP, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE PLEUKHARP BARREL MACHINE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF PREPARING BUNG-STAVES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 513,339, dated January 23, 1894.

Application filed January 21, 1893. Serial No. 459,194. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES PLEUKHARP, a citizen of the United States, residing at Go lumbus, in the county of Franklin, State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Preparing Bung- Staves; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled [0 in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of this invention is to devise a process or method by which the bung hole may be bored in the bung stave, before the barrel is formed.

The invention consists in first slowly bending the stave into the form which it will assume in the completed barrel, and then boring the bung hole therein.

The invention also consists in first severing the fibers of the stave on the inner side along the bilge by transverse grooves, then slowly bending the stave into the form which it will assume in the completed barrel, and finally 2 5 boring the bung hole in the stave.

The invention also consists of the novel features and the peculiar construction and combination of the parts which-will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed and 0 which are shown in the annexed drawings, in

l which- Figure 1 is a view in elevation of a completed stave having the bung hole bored therein after the manner of my invention as seen from the inner side. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the stave shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a cross section of the stave showing the neutral axis slightly curved. Fig. l is a cross section of a theoretically perfect stave having the opposite sides convex and similarly curved, and having the neutral axis straight. Fig. 5 is an edge view of a stave bent into the desired form prior to boring the bung hole therein. Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of the bilge portion of a stave. v

Heretofore the bung hole has been bored only after the barrel was otherwise entirely completed. In the old method of making tight or liquid barrels, staves of varying width are first set up to an approximate given diameter and partially trussed. They are then placed over fires and warped. The trussing is then completed, the staves crozed and chamfered and the barrel headed and hooped. In this completed form, and usually after the delay 5 of several days to allow the strained fibers to set, they are bored for the bung hole. In the system devised and used by me, sawed staves of any good closed grained hard wood, all of exactly the same size and crozed and cham- 6o fered, turned rounding on the outside and left square or straight on the inside, are formed into barrels and headed and hooped without the use of fires or truss hoop, the bung holes being bored by the method or according to the process hereinafter described. The advantage arising from the boring of the bung hole in the bung stave before the barrel is formed, have long been recognized, but though often attempted, has heretofore never been satisfactorily accomplished for the reason that the stave thus greatly weakened was unable to stand the strains from longitudinal bending and transverse warpage incurred in the formation of the barrel, the wood checking or splitting about the bung hole. The question which presented itself was how to overcome or remove these strains upon the fibers of the wood.

In the longitudinal bending of the staves to form the bilge the outer fibers are stretched and the inner compressed, with a tendency in consequence of a slipping or shearing of the outer over the inner fibers. The firing of the barrel in the old process is intended to partially overcome this trouble by the shrinkage of the inside fibers of the stave under the action of the heat; but this is an un satisfactory process as with the removal of the heat, the fibers will tend to resume their 0 former position and condition, resulting in the undue straining of the fibers and consequent weakening of the stave. The longitudinal bending likewise tends to-produce a transverse warpage, increasing the strain 5 upon thefibers and its consequent evils. A theoretically perfect stave would be one in which these strains did not exist, one in which there would be no tendency to either shrinkage or warpage, by longitudinal bending.

Considering simply the transverse warpage, I hold that a theoretically perfect stave IOO Considering simply the shearing strain ortendency of the outer fibers to slip over the inner, due to the stretching of the outer and compression of the inner fibers, in longitudi nal bending to form the bilge of the barrel, I hold that a theoretically perfect stave would be one which in cross section would be a line simply, the neutral axis; ThisI endeavor to approximate in practice by severing the in-' ner fibers at intervals along the part of greatest strain-the bilge, and cutting away sufficient material to allow the ends of the fibers to unite without undue strain fromcompression. This cut or groove theoretically would be sufiicient in depth to coincide with the neutral axis, and V-shaped, which practically would beimpossible. In practice I prefer tomake the cuts and grooves with thin saws, and

depend upon the sizing or gluing of-the barrel,

to fil'l'up any interstices and so make it prac tically correct; bu-t'even with these approximations to'the theoretically perfect stave, I

found that the boring of'the bung hole before the-formation ofthe barrel Would still result in the checking of the wood'from the undue strains upon the fibers. It has long been known that a second bending .either of metal or wood'is always easier than the first,requiring less power to produce it, and hence the strain between the particles in the metal and the fibers in the wood, must be less, there having been a displacement or movement of the particles in the metal and a slipping of the fibers in the wood during the first bending. The process of setting consists simply in the givingof sufficient time to complete this slipping and so overcome the strain. With this fact before me I thendetermined upon a first slowbending of the bung stave into the form it would eventually take in the completed barrel, then boring the bung hole and proceeding as before in the formation of the barrel. This process is found to be entirely satisfactory, completely overcoming the difficulty. By this process, not only is the labor required todo the boring greatly reduced, but all checking of the bung stave entirely overcome. The sweating of the barrel on the inside, while the fibers are being allowed to set, in the old process, before the boring of the bung hole is also obviated.

The process in detail as practiced by me is asfollows: The finished st'aves-which in the new process for the making of barrels devised and used by me, are turned rounding on the outside and left square or straight on the inside, and crozed and chamfered, are run over a mandrel carrying a dozen thin circular saws about one-half or three-fourths of an inch apart, by which cuts or grooves are barrel. They are then bored for the bung hole,

and put'in with the other staves to be formed into barrels,trussed, headed and hooped. My stave by its very form, turned rounding on the outside as at B and left square on the inside, as at G is, I believe, subject to less strains under longitudinal bending to form the bilge than the old form of staves. The severing of the inner fibers at the place of greatest strain likewise tends to reduce the strain by the removal of the compression of the inner fibers; but by the slow and gradual bendin-g,;especially are these strains removed by the movement and partial setting of the fibers.

I amaware that the idea'of-b oring the bung hole before the barrel is formed is old; but that it hasnever before been successfully accomplishedis proven bythe fact that while the-advantages are readily seen and everywhere acknowledged, the universal practice is to bore for the bung hole'only after the barrel is otherwise completed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The herein described process-ofprepan ing bung staves and providing the bung hole therein. prior to forming the barrel, which consists in first slowly and gradually bending the properly prepared stave intotheform which it will assume in the completed barrel then boring the same to'form the bung hole,- and-subsequently treating the stave as other staves in theformation of thebarrel, sub-' stantially as described.

2. r The herein described process of-preparing bung staves andproviding the bunghole therein prior to forming the-barrel, which conslsts 1n first providing transverse grooves on the inner side of the stave along-the bilge,

then bending the stave into the form it will assume in the completed barrel, and lastly boring the stave to form the bung hole, substantially as described.-

3. The herein described process of preparing bung staves and providing the bun-g .hole therein prior to forming the barrel, which consists in first transversely grooving .ithe properly prepared stave,'roundin'g on the out-' IIC side; straight on the inside and crozed and chamfered, on the inside along the bilge,t-hen slowly and gradually bending the-stave into the form it will assume in the completed --barrel, and finally boring the stave to form the bung hole, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signaturein presence of two witnesses.

JAMES PLEUKHARP.

Witnesses:

EDWARD J. CONVERSE, JNo. A. MCDOWELL. 

